While you all are probably caught up in the marketing and fundraising going on during these last couple weeks before the general election, we are pondering how it all went down a thousand years ago.

If there is anything thing to praise organized religion for, it’s that they really know how to raise a bunch of money, and they really know how to market their beliefs to the little people — hence allowing them to raise more money. Smart. Real smart. We’ve seen evidence of their success in over 10 counties now, and today we saw yet another impressive representation of their ability for them to finance and build some really amazing structures.

St. Vitus Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral located within Prague Castle that was first built in the year 925.

It has undergone several upgrades since then as has the castle itself. Actually the castle as a whole is sort of ugly in my opinion. From the outside it looks pretty impressive…

…but inside the castle walls it’s a giant hodgepodge of new…

…and old developments all mashed together with no thought whatsoever given to continuity. Here you can see the cathedral in the background with a much more modern building in the foreground, and then some modern art version of an obelisk off to the right. Bleh.

You can still look past the eyesores however and appreciate the beauty of the ancient architectural accomplishments.

As well as the meticulous stained glass craftsmanship that went into the creation of the colorful windows.

It’s not hard to imagine how 1,000 years ago, people could so easily be manipulated into believing there was a higher power, and the church was a direct link to that higher power. I mean for goodness sake, just look at that building! No being of this earth could possibly design this cathedral! Right? I can’t say I really blame the peasants of the day for falling for the scam. Here, take my pence too.

Heck the gods even had the foresight to predict The Empire Strikes Back and foreshadowed it’s creation with this mid evil replica of Han Solo frozen in carbonite.

Damn they’re good!

And if that doesn’t convince you… well then, you just get stabbed and beaten into submission before you start to believe.

On to happier thoughts and images…

Autumn is in full swing and the colors throughout the city are eye-popping!

It’s starting to get cold and gloomy at night now.

Time to start planning our escape to Asia where we can wear shorts again. It’s hard to believe we’ve already been in Europe for 3 months now, and within a couple weeks we’ll be in Hong Kong! That’s just crazy talk!